Gordon Robinson | Congratulations, Theresa! May two wasted years soon pass!

Congratulations are in order for UK Prime-Minister-for-another-minute-or-so, Theresa May.

On April 23, 2017 (Crime Dog Chasing Tail), I highlighted her error in relying on political pollsters to call a ‘snap’ election for June 8:

“Oh, dear. She’s relying on polls that give Conservatives a comfortable lead. Polls, schmolls! Those same pollsters said Britain would vote against Brexit; PNP would win the 2016 election; and we should be obsessing about President Hillary Clinton.”

Relying on unmeasured realities, I predicted she’d lose:

“There are a few facts of life Theresa has allowed to escape her. First, her party LOST the Brexit plebiscite. The revolt was led by traditional Conservative Party supporters, namely the elderly Brit aghast at what Britain now looks like. The youth, who opposed Brexit, are hopping mad at May’s Conservatives for allowing that vote to slip through buttered fingers…

So, May alienated traditional Conservative supporters AND opponents’ goodwill. Furthermore, in Scotland, her name is Mad Untrustworthy Dame after persuading them to vote against Independence with promises to stay in EU. Cassius, Brutus and the gang are lining up long knives clutched tightly.”

So, I got THAT right. Elections called to ‘snap’ Conservatives into entrenched power instead removed their parliamentary majority and snapped their connection to any moral authority to govern. In reality, a modern UK majority want ‘Europe’ (even touted front-runner to replace Theresa, Boris Johnson, was a reluctant ‘Brexiteer’), while traditionalists want to leave.

Theresa herself was a strong advocate for ‘Remainers’, but unlike Cameron, seemed unable to summon up the principle to put her beliefs over her political ambition. She could’ve benefited from tutorials on fixity of purpose from Eddie Seaga or Maggie Thatcher.

Theresa followed error with error by forgetting (or ignoring), inter alia, that Cameron won an absolute majority by promising Scotland that UK would stay in the EU if Scotland voted against independence.

As I wrote on June 13, 2017 (Politics Has Changed), “Scots incensed, the youth angry, traditional conservatives upset with Tories for supporting EU. Surely, Theresa should’ve thanked God (and David Cameron) for giving her a small majority and tried banking achievements before calling an election in 2020?”

But she didn’t. So I ended by boldly predicting “She won’t last three months”.

So, congratulations, Theresa. On May 23, 2019, as you converted your 10 Downing Street occupancy to one of squatter, almost two years had passed since my three months prediction. But it was two torturous years, featuring hanging on by fingernails and attempts to subvert the referendum result with scheme after scheme in a brutal exposé of the expression ‘Westminster democracy’ as an oxymoron. Why doubt the people?

I CONCUR

On May 26, in what unexpectedly became his final column, Martin Henry, wrote this about Brexit:

“Running against history (and prophecy) and the potent power of commerce, one of the greatest forces in the whole world, world media has been feeding us a steady diet of gloom and doom for Britain outside the EU, while talking up the merits of membership. But once the hiccups of actual exit are behind, and these will be short-lived, UK will be OK. It’s the EU we should worry about.”

And, in a gentle reminder that Britain did reasonably well for almost 1,000 years before EU, Henry, whose excellent contributions to public discourse were so suddenly and shockingly terminated on May 28, wrote:

“The world may be forgetting that it was the British people who more than anybody else invented capitalism, initiated the Industrial Revolution, were world leaders in mercantile trade, drove the emergence of both modern science and parliamentary democracy, and, from a relatively small island base, built the largest empire the world has yet seen...”

In the words of a famous Appeal Court judge (now deceased), whose judgments usually consisted of seven words, I concur and have nothing to add. Like a bad curry goat, May, too, shall pass.

Peace and Love!

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.